Safe

I have not left the my apartment in 2 days and I could not be more content.

Asaf Avidan-One day official video HD

Paycheck to paycheck

I've got all these cards ready to mail, but no money to buy the stamps.

Belgium

I was able to visit Mike in Belgium for 10 days during my first break at the end of October.  There are a lot of breaks in France.  We had a wonderful time in Leuven where he studies, and also visiting Bruxelles and Bruges and another city that I forget the name of right now.  We enjoyed lots of lattes and beers in little Belgian cafes/pubs, as well as a few nice meals out.  I finally tried Thai food !  Good stuff.  I had never been to Belgium before so everything was extra exciting for me.  In Bruxelles we saw the main attraction, the pissing statue (a little boy peeing), which was much smaller than I expected..and then it started to rain so we went to a famous bar called Delerium where they have over 200 different beers !  There are 3 floors.  The top floor serves only imported beers, the 2nd floor serves bottled beers, and the 1st serves beers on tap...I think, but my memory is a bit hazy.  Belgian beers are strong !  We stuck with the beers on tap. We also ate moules frites for lunch, which was pretty touristy.  The only negative thing about Belgium is that it was freezing !  Toulouse is much warmer, thankfully.  Anyway, I'll hopefully be going back again soon.  Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures.

Bruges

At Delerium

Bruges was as quaint as I had imagined

The street sign says "Linge rei" ;)

Walking around a Fortress with creepy Halloween decorations everywhere.

Dungeons !

Sole

In December I went with my friend Kirsten and her bf to see this American underground rapper called Sole in Toulouse.  He was so good!  I'll link his soundcloud because I can't find any youtube videos.  Very passionate performance/hates the system and can rap ridiculously fast.  I got to meet him after the show, really cool guy :D

Have I mentioned French people don't dance at concerts?  They just bob their heads...like people in LA I guess.

https://soundcloud.com/soleonedotorg

Parents come to visit!

As my parents are retired this year, they were able to come visit me !  They were on a little eurotrip, visiting Italy with their friends from Norway.  I think they came from Oct 13-17th.  I showed them around Toulouse and we went on little road trips to Cordes sur ciel, Albi and Rocamadour.  Cordes sur ciel is a really cool town because it's so high up !  (Ciel means sky) Albi hosts a huuuge cathedral.   But, Rocamadour was my favorite because it's a city built into a mountain !  Très cool.  Our last night we went out to dinner with Nihal at Gouillages?  I don't remember the name lol, but it was deeelicious.  When Mike came to visit, I took him there as well.  My dad got the region specialty Cassoulet, my mom got salmon, and I got duck, yum !  It was a short, but sweet trip and I was sad to have them leave.

Pilgrimage stop

City in a mountain !

Black Madonna

Had a tour in the prehistoric caves (grottes).  Awesome!

The Japanese Gardens in Toulouse

The Basilica outside of my high school :p

My favorite picture ♥

Out with the English Assistants

Awkward Turtle at Jaeger bar :)

Actually there's a Scottish, Italian and Irish in this picture as well.

Toulouse

My beautiful new flatmates:

Selin, Nihal et moi :)

Back to France. Round 3.

OK SO, Sept 12, 2012.  Flight LAX to Toulouse (layover in London).  Nihal, my new flatmate was lovely enough to pick me up from the airport and show me to my new place, where I live with her and Selin.  Unfortunately, I had to leave a day later for a quick vacation before the start of school on October 1st, so I would have to wait to get to know them.

I went to Paris for a week with Mike.  We stayed at my friend Antoine's place and explored the city.  He lives in the 18th with his flatmate Sophie.  It was the Jour du Patrimoine that weekend, so we were able to visit the Senate and Congress and Napoleon's tomb for free.  Except for said weekend, the public is not allowed into the Senate/government buildings.  We also went to Versailles and the Impressionist museum etc

We met at a café in my faorite park, Buttes Chaumont

He lives on the 4th floor

Musée d'Orsay

Mike loved the medieval armor museum

Napoleon's tomb

Pretty majestic tomb, Napoleon

Pere Lachaise

Montmartre

Versailles

Every time I've been to Versailles, there's a super weird art exhibition inside.

After Paris, Mike had to go back to start school in Belgium, and I went off to London (on teh 20th) to visit Dan, Ant, Charlotte and crew !  It was super fun.  Lots of hanging out and movies, but Ant and I also got to see Lucy Rose live at a record shop, releasing her new album...aaand we all went to see Fake Blood live (dj), which was amazing.  It was a great week of which I have zero photo evidence because 1) I don't have a camera and 2) we forgot to take pictures.

After London it was off to Biarritz on the 27th to visit KristenTranny!  It was a big surf competition that weekend at Hossegar so there were a lot of surfers in town.  We went to the beach, ate delicious pizza and went to the big Quicksilver concert (Kristen was working for Quicksilver).  We had never heard of the performers, but were thoroughly impressed by The Shoes and Birdy Nam Nam. Great weekend, of which there are pictures somehwere, but I can't find them.  Tant pis.

I had my first day at work on Oct 1st, so I got back to Toulouse on the 30th, ready to start.

Nature

Living in a city makes me miss the sky.  Living at the beach you see way more sky.  Here all I see are buildings.

Aujourd'hui

Il y a du soleil !!!!!

IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!!!!!!

China's Disneyland

Amour

I didn't know you could fall in love with the same person twice.